Integration of multi-modal data and annotations into a simple extendable form: the extension of the BAS Partitur Format

Abstract

Multi-modal resources typically consist of very different data in terms of content and format. This paper discusses a practical solution for the integration of different physical signals as well as associated symbolic data into a common framework. There are ongoing efforts like for instance the ISLE project to develop guidelines and best-of-practice for the standardized representation of such data collections. Since these efforts have not yet converged into a widely accepted concept, we suggest as a starting point to use two different already existing frameworks that can be easily combined for this purpose: The QuickTime format for the handling of synchronized multi-modal signals and the (extended) BAS Partitur Format for the handling of all symbolic data. We can show that with this simple approach it is already possible to integrate the rather complex data streams of the SmartKom Corpus into an easy-to-use format that will be distributed via the Bavarian Archive for Speech Signals (BAS) starting in July 2002